The concept Game Boys you wish were real

In September 1989, Nintendo introduced its newest console to Europe. It was a grey plastic brick, a palm-filling lump, whose green-tinted LCD screen filled comparatively little of its bulk.

Gamers fell in love with it the moment they heard the "ping" of its startup sequence.

Twenty five years on, and the Game Boy still has a place in our hearts - but not our pockets. Sure the 3DS is a capable successor, but it doesn't quite have the same draw as Nintendo's original handheld. Which might explain why each of these concept designs has our thumbs acting all twitchy.

These are the best Game Boy concepts we wish Nintendo would turn into a reality.

Nintendo Game Boy 1UP

A creation of designer Florian Renner, the 1UP nods to the original model's aesthetic with a slitted speaker outlet and colour scheme.

It's the glorious offspring of a PSP and Game Boy, and we wish it were real.

Nintendo Smart Boy

Nintendo Smart Boy

Nintendo Smart Boy

Hyperkin Smart Boy

Why build a new Game Boy when your own smartphone is more than capable of taking you back to the nostalgic days of cartridge gaming?

Hyperkin raised the heart rates of many gamers with this proposed Game Boy 'adaptor' for smartphones - allowing you to plug your phone into the Smart Boy and play through your old collection.

Portable N64

Okay, so this isn't a Game Boy concept - it's a real-life handheld Nintendo 64. Which is arguably much cooler.

The creation of console modifier Bungle, this build rips out the innards of the original N64 console, tweaks them to reduce their size and squeezes the whole package into a portable body - complete with screen.